Crash

Michael Anthony Peña in Crash.

As a matter of coincidence, my wife and I watched the movie "Crash" from Neflix just as the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Neither of us had planned to watch the awards, but only happened to catch that portion of the show when the award was made. We were literally turning off the television to watch the movie when we saw the award.

We originally watched the movie because my mom recommended it, and Rhonda said Oprah had good things to say about it (I suppose Oprah's word is pretty darn near Gospel truth with my wife, so how could I resist?)

I'm sure most everyone who's going to see it has already done so, but I have to say the film was quite thought-provoking and troubling, all at the same time. It's a disturbing reminder of the prejudice and bias within all of us. I can't really say anything of substance about what I saw, except to say I found myself identifying with the characters in a deeply emotional and sometimes soul-wrenching way. In fact, I chose the image above of Michael Anthony Peña precisely because in that moment I no longer saw the characters on the screen, rather I saw myself holding my baby Whitney. Rhonda screamed during that scene, and I just sat there and cried. It had such an impact, and left me wondering how deeply racism still affects us all.